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Cichorium
intybus
(Chicory) Asteraceae (Sunflower Family) Foothills. Fields, openings, disturbed areas.
Summer, fall. Some alien weeds are really hard to hate. Everyone knows Chicory, perhaps not by name but certainly by sight. It is abundant in lower elevation fields, often growing so thickly that it imparts a blue cast to the field in mid-summer. Flower heads are made up only of ray flowers that are sky blue to light lavender. Stems are thick and strong and 2 to 5 feet tall with few small leaves. Chicory blooms from mid-summer to fall and is an alien species considered a noxious weed in Colorado. "Cichorium" is, according to William A. Weber, an "alteration of the Arabian name" for Chicory and according to the on-line Botanical Dictionary, "intybus" is "derived from [the] Egyptian [word] "tybi", "January", the month that it was customarily eaten". In 1753 Linnaeus named this species and this genus; the genus contains seven European species . |
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Cichorium intybus
(Chicory) Asteraceae (Sunflower Family) Foothills. Fields, openings, disturbed areas.
Summer, fall. The first basal leaves of Chicory might be mistaken for Dandelion leaves, but the leaves quickly become much larger, vertical, and darker green. The long green wiry flower stalks also distinguish Chicory from Dandelions.
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